


The Travelling Bottle of Peach Schnapps

by FlightDeckOrchids



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Male Friendship, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2013-11-17
Packaged: 2018-01-01 21:58:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1049047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlightDeckOrchids/pseuds/FlightDeckOrchids
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How the same bottle of peach schnapps affected the lives of Arthur Shappey, Douglas Richardson, and Martin Crieff across a period of years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Travelling Bottle of Peach Schnapps

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't intend for this story to be a heavy-hitter, but Douglas Richardson's past alcoholism and continued struggle is a strong theme in this story. If that sort of thing makes you uncomfortable this won't be for you. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy and I appreciate feedback since I work without a beta. 
> 
> Written for the November 2013 Let's Create Cabin Pressure Challenge.  
> http://letscreatecabinpressure.tumblr.com/

             The impromptu dinner party at the Knapp-Shappey residence (if three people can be called a party) ended about the time drunken Arthur started insisting the garden gnome in yard was a member of an alien race, sent on mission of peace to the inhabitants of Fitton, and they were going to communicate through song.  The fact that Arthur had actually used a word as complicated as “inhabitants” correctly in a sentence was definitely a tip-off to Douglas and Carolyn that something was very wrong.  It was right around that time when Douglas stood from the table, opened his mouth to make his excuses to leave and Carolyn cut him off.

            “Where do you think you’re going?” she asked as she tried to contain her anger that threatened to boil over.

            “Well, home seemed like the best option given that my invitation to the Queen’s garden party never arrived,” Douglas deadpanned in return.

            “Now is not the time for jokes, Douglas.  You can’t leave me here to handle Arthur in this state alone!  The bottle of peach schnapps you brought is the reason he’s wearing a sauce pan on his head and singing something resembling Gilbert & Sullivan songs in the garden as we speak!  You can’t just leave!” she bellowed.

            “I think you’ll see I can and I shall,” came his response.

            “At least take the rest of the schnapps with you.  There’s still 90% of a bottle and I can’t imagine what will happen if he gets his hands on it,” she pleaded.

            “Oh, I can’t do that, Carolyn.”

            “Why ever not?”

            “No reason,” he paused, “It’s just not right to take back a gift is all.  Why don’t you take it to the airfield tomorrow and give it to that new captain you hired?  What’s his name again, Mark, Michael, Maxwell?”

            “His name is Martin,” Carolyn replied, only to continue a beat later, “Wait, is that what this is all about?  A half-baked revenge plot to show up on my doorstep with peach schnapps to turn my son into a drunken lunatic all because I didn’t make you captain?”

            “Carolyn that was never my intent, an interesting side-effect I’ll grant you, but not my intent.”

            “Intent or not, take your peach schnapps and throw it into Lake Fitton for all I care!”  With that she shoved the bottle into Douglas’ hands and pushed him out the door.

            It was in that moment, standing alone on Carolyn’s front porch, that Douglas almost turned back to tell her the whole truth: he was six years sober and didn’t want the temptation of the bottle (part of a Christmas basket from a distant aunt) in his home.  But that wasn’t the kind of truth a man pretending to be a Sky God could admit.  Briefly, Douglas did actually consider Carolyn’s suggestion of throwing the bottle into Lake Fitton, but reconsidered when he realized that keeping the bottle, now in its unsealed state, would be a challenge, a way to prove he really had changed.  He like that idea.

***

            So the bottle sat, untouched by Douglas in the back of a cupboard in the Richardson pantry for a few years.  That was, untouched until the night Helena finally left Douglas.  On that occasion, Douglas somehow remembered the forgotten bottle in the back of the pantry, the only alcohol in the house.  He retrieved it and sat it on the kitchen table.  He noticed it now only contained 50% of its original contents.

            _‘She probably enjoyed a round of fuzzy navels with that damned Tai Chi instructor,’_ Douglas thought ruefully.

            But Douglas never opened the bottle.  He sat in a chair across the table from it and stared at it, but he did not reach for it.  He only thought of the what-ifs and missed moments of his life.  The stare-down with the bottle became a nightly ritual anytime he was home during the next three months.  The real kicker was peach schnapps wasn’t even an alcohol Douglas particularly liked, but he knew if he started there it would lead him back to the things he did have a real taste for.

            His breaking point came shortly after a flight to Limerick when he had admitted to Martin that Helena had left him.  It was Douglas’ second revelation to Martin.  He had told his captain about his struggle with sobriety long before that.  Douglas smirked when he thought of Martin, for Douglas never would have imagined Martin Crieff, the By-The-Book-Nervous-Nelly of a captain he had once so resented, would now be his best friend.  The night he came to that realization, things once again changed for Douglas Richardson.

***

            It was raining hard when Douglas showed up late that night on Martin’s doorstep with the half empty bottle of peach schnapps.  Martin took in the soaked sight before him, assumed the worst, and gasped, “Oh no Douglas, you didn’t?”

            “No, I haven’t yet but if you don’t take this I just might,” and he thrust the bottle at Martin.

            Without another word, Martin let Douglas in the building and took the bottle from him.  To his credit, Martin didn’t ask what had happened to the other half of the bottle or why Douglas hadn’t just poured the remainder down his sink. 

            Then a thought struck Martin, _‘Douglas could have easily disposed of this bottle himself.  He’s not here to rid himself of a temptation.  He’s here because he needs a friend.’_   A friend was something Martin Crieff could be.

            Douglas and Martin spent the next few hours talking about what seemed like everything and nothing all at the same time.  At the end of it, Douglas returned home secure in the knowledge he would survive another divorce and Martin went to bed a bit more confident that there were some things in life he could get right from time to time.  The bottle of peach schnapps found a home in the bottom of Martin’s attic bedroom closet.

***

            Martin wasn’t a stranger to alcohol but he did believe in the old adage to never drink alone.  Since Martin was almost always alone, the bottle of peach schnapps remained untouched in the bottom of his closet.  At least, that was until a series of unexpected events happened.

            Herc had been called away at the last minute on a flight for Swiss Air, so not wanting to waste a set of opera tickets, Carolyn had given them to Martin to “scalp or something.”  She’d secretly hoped he’d ask one of the girls from the agricultural college to accompany him.  What Carolyn didn’t know was that the opera coincided with Princess Theresa’s latest visit to see the King of Lichtenstein at boarding school.

            Martin didn’t have a problem asking Theresa to the opera, but just before he was about to leave to meet her, his nerves got the better of him.  This would be their fourth date.  In Martin’s mind, that was somewhat serious.

            _‘I’m going to ruin this,’_ he thought.  He needed something to calm himself, just one nip of something.  Martin briefly considered resorting to a dose of cough syrup before he remembered the forgotten schnapps.  One peachy shot later, Martin felt his head clear. 

 _‘I can do this.  I am confident and in control,’_ he thought and actually believed it for once.  Martin remembered that mantra later in the evening when Theresa invited him back to her hotel room for the first time.

            That is the story of how the same bottle of peach schnapps gave Douglas Richardson the hope to be a better man and Martin Crieff the courage to believe in himself.  But that only came about because it also accidentally turned Arthur Shappey into a Gremlin once for just a few hours.


End file.
